"We are already short-staffed as it is,"one Social Security Administration employee said of the agency's plans to slash its workforce.

Musk first made the claims that benefits are being claimed by people who appear to have died long ago while speaking from the Oval Office with President Trump last week. He said that DOGE has performed a "cursory examination of Social Security, and we got people in there that are 150 years old."

The Trump administration claimed the Social Security Administration gives payments to dead people. SSA audits revealed it happens less than suspected.